February 1, 2013

Apple’s Cracking Down In China

by Derrick Madison

Whoops!!! Recent rumors of Apple working with smart phone suppliers who have been employing underage workers have rung out truer than we expected.

In a recent audit report, Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics (PZ) had been caught employing roughly 74 underage workers. This piece of news follows after months of consistent rumors have bounced around the internet about unfair practices with Apple’s manufactures.

As previously reported by redOrbit, Foxconn, one of Apple’s major suppliers, has probably gained the most negative attention from situations like this. Foxconn is a Taiwanese electronic design manufacturing company that most notably produces a large number of iPod and iPad products. The company also pushes the manufacture of PS3, Kindle, and Wii-U.

Foxxcon came under fire in 2010 for a large number of suicides and riots that occurred in the company within just one year’s time. Needless to say, Apple fans view these companies with a stiff stink eye.

The audit that Apple issued to PZ seems to be one of the first moves we’ve seen in what might be a campaign of affecting a more civil working condition. I think their concentration on this part of business is a bit late, yet very welcomed, to shut some of us up. I, for one, had no problem believing Apple would knowingly partner with a company that would commit to actions like that.

Just last month, Apple made an announcement they would be moving a major Mac factory in China to the U.S. Why would consumers care about which factory their product was made in, or who made it? The answer is American consumers would like to believe a brand that is primarily American based and used should be created by Americans.

For some people, it’s just easier to sip from a cup of coffee that was made in Pennsylvania, rather than Taiwan. Should it matter so much where the product is made? From a consumers point of view, we would like to believe that our hard earned money is circulated to American workers. However, from the manufacturer’s view, it is more about profits.

Apple has gained a peculiar reputation with the public over workers’ rights and accusations of them being an evil company. Now it seems that rumor is true, and they’ve been caught with another company that condones acts like this. Apple has to put their foot down and squash any accusation or idea they can be mixed in the same crowd as PZ.

But even if they changed the public’s view on the way they run their company, Foxconn is still going to be manufacturing a majority of their products. My opinion on this is if Apple was consciously pushing for events like this to occur, they might have been a bit more vigilant with their audits. I don’t necessarily trust in the integrity of their business just yet, so I’ll look more into the future when they turn their attention to Foxconn.